When we get back down to the Arches Visitor Center, some other people said they had gotten to Mesa Verde the day after we did and were told not to drive up the mountain without chains as the higher elevations were all covered with snow. The drizzle is the leading edge of a big storm, they say. We decide we should be going home as quickly as possible. We do see snow in several places as we go but seem to be mostly just ahead of the worst of it. One pass is 10,535 feet high, but bare and dry as we go over the top. On another pass, snow is softly falling and blankets every slope surrounding us. The flurries are thick enough to begin sticking on the main road just a few minutes before we start to wonder, where is the highest point? and then drive downward out of it. Later we heard the storm dropped a lot of moisture and brought flooding to several areas we had recently visited. 
It is so-o good to be safely home :-). Hope you all enjoyed this saga and thanks for listening. 
Love, Connie 
The pictures at Arches seem so dark but, do look pretty good when viewed on a TV screen. The first shot is called the Pine Tree Arch (there is a big one to the left of it), and it doesn't seem to-oo impressive (and maybe moreso when we can't see the top of the wall). But, you can get an idea of how big it is in the second shot since I am standing inside of it taking a picture of the opposite wall ten or twelve feet away. The second is looking back towards the Devil's Garden parking lot and I came through a wide path between two of those walls. The last one, was so peaceful before we thought we might have more snow than we could handle :-).